Should I do Chemistry Tutoring or is it not needed? (1 Viewer)

SweatyAsian#1

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Hi there,

Just a quick question if you guys think taking Chemistry tutoring is helpful/required for the HSC or just staying on top of homework + getting ahead of the work is good enough? I already do tutoring for Math and Physics so I don't really want to be reliant on tutoring anymore/invest more time & money into it.
If you have any personal experience/inspiration advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
 

idkkdi

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Hi there,

Just a quick question if you guys think taking Chemistry tutoring is helpful/required for the HSC or just staying on top of homework + getting ahead of the work is good enough? I already do tutoring for Math and Physics so I don't really want to be reliant on tutoring anymore/invest more time & money into it.
If you have any personal experience/inspiration advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
all tutoring is probably helpful and not necessary lol.
 

SweatyAsian#1

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all tutoring is probably helpful and not necessary lol.
WOAHHH, you pretty much do the same subjects I'm planning to do lol. Well, to be more precise, do you do chem tutoring? If so, where at? If you had to choose to go back in time to start of Year 12, would you have been more diligent when studying by yourself or tuition really REALLY helped?
 

idkkdi

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WOAHHH, you pretty much do the same subjects I'm planning to do lol. Well, to be more precise, do you do chem tutoring? If so, where at? If you had to choose to go back in time to start of Year 12, would you have been more diligent when studying by yourself or tuition really REALLY helped?
didn't attend tuition. I heard Ace Chem is a carry though.

if i could change anything, i would sweat the term 4 y11 assessment block cause i've spent the past two terms trying to drag myself out of that hole lol. normally you can get quite a big head start in that assessment block as lots of people don't kick into gear yet.
 

SweatyAsian#1

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didn't attend tuition. I heard Ace Chem is a carry though.

if i could change anything, i would sweat the term 4 y11 assessment block cause i've spent the past two terms trying to drag myself out of that hole lol. normally you can get quite a big head start in that assessment block as lots of people don't kick into gear yet.
OooOooo, very nice very nice. Thanks for your personal advice big man. Gl for HSC and make use of that extra week or more for HSC :)
 

dasfas

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It depends on the individual. If you are highly motivated and can self study well, tutoring has diminishing returns. However, if you aren't a super strong student, then tutoring can definitely help you improve your marks. But I think that 1 on 1 tutoring is better, because then you can ask questions specific to where you're struggling, whereas classroom tutoring is basically just school 2.0.

If the tutor has previously excelled, they can teach you tips/tricks that don't get taught in class and that you'd have to figure out on your own. This can be super helpful and save you a lot of time trying to figure out yourself.

I did not do tutoring and I think my results speak for themselves.
 

SweatyAsian#1

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It depends on the individual. If you are highly motivated and can self study well, tutoring has diminishing returns. However, if you aren't a super strong student, then tutoring can definitely help you improve your marks. But I think that 1 on 1 tutoring is better, because then you can ask questions specific to where you're struggling, whereas classroom tutoring is basically just school 2.0.

If the tutor has previously excelled, they can teach you tips/tricks that don't get taught in class and that you'd have to figure out on your own. This can be super helpful and save you a lot of time trying to figure out yourself.

I did not do tutoring and I think my results speak for themselves.
Wow, you're THE man! Your results actually spoke to me O.O Honestly, I am more on the side of not taking tutoring but what was your main methods of studying for Chemistry? Like flashcards, practice papers, textbooks? If you could at least highlight some of your main study techniques/methods that allowed you to do extremely well in your HSC, that would be much appreciated.
 

dasfas

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Wow, you're THE man! Your results actually spoke to me O.O Honestly, I am more on the side of not taking tutoring but what was your main methods of studying for Chemistry? Like flashcards, practice papers, textbooks? If you could at least highlight some of your main study techniques/methods that allowed you to do extremely well in your HSC, that would be much appreciated.
Yeah, flashcards all the way. I used quizlet for prelim + HSC as the interface is prettier, but now I just use Anki and it's a godsend.

I did a ton of past papers but these were all old syllabus papers because we were the first year to do the new course. I think for the HSC I ended up doing ~ 20 papers? The quantity isn't important. I know people who did way more work and performed worse because they weren't doing the most important thing - learning from your mistakes. Whenever you get a question wrong, or see something new in the rubric, add it to your notes!!

I used Pearson for Chemistry and it was decent. I learnt all the low yield random facts. I never asked "is this going to be on the exam", if it came up, I learnt it. This is by no means efficient - typically you want to spend time learning the high yield facts and not waste too much time on low yield stuff. But I believe (and still do) that learning some of the low yield information helps cement concepts better in your head.

Always ask questions in class, or if you teacher sucks, find a forum ie. stackexchange or quora, and ask questions there. Or ask your tutor.

Be self-aware of what do you and don't know. You should be able to explain everything you know to someone else - this is called the "Feynman Technique". If you can't explain something to someone, you don't understand it. Whenever you explain something, ask yourself "why". Why does this happen.

For example, weaker students will say "water is a polar molecule" and leave it at that. Ask yourself why? Because it's electronegative. Why does that make it polar? Because this means that electrons from the hydrogens spend more time around the oxygen and less time around the hydrogens. This creates a partial negative charge around the oxygen (more negative charges are spending time there) and a partial postitve charge around the hydrogens (less electrons spending their time there).

So just by asking yourself "why", you just went from a band 3 to a band 6 answer.

Finally, hone your exam technique. Tbh, there is little difference between mid band 5 and mid band 6 in terms of knowledge - the difference is how they apply it. A tutor can help with this, but what I did was I always strived to improve my answer and always referred to the marking schemes when marking my past papers. Whenever there was something I forgot, or something that wasn't necessary, but mentioned in the rubric, I would add it to my notes. I would do this regardless of whether I had gotten the question right or not. I basically ended using past papers as methods of learning new content.
 

SweatyAsian#1

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Yeah, flashcards all the way. I used quizlet for prelim + HSC as the interface is prettier, but now I just use Anki and it's a godsend.

I did a ton of past papers but these were all old syllabus papers because we were the first year to do the new course. I think for the HSC I ended up doing ~ 20 papers? The quantity isn't important. I know people who did way more work and performed worse because they weren't doing the most important thing - learning from your mistakes. Whenever you get a question wrong, or see something new in the rubric, add it to your notes!!

I used Pearson for Chemistry and it was decent. I learnt all the low yield random facts. I never asked "is this going to be on the exam", if it came up, I learnt it. This is by no means efficient - typically you want to spend time learning the high yield facts and not waste too much time on low yield stuff. But I believe (and still do) that learning some of the low yield information helps cement concepts better in your head.

Always ask questions in class, or if you teacher sucks, find a forum ie. stackexchange or quora, and ask questions there. Or ask your tutor.

Be self-aware of what do you and don't know. You should be able to explain everything you know to someone else - this is called the "Feynman Technique". If you can't explain something to someone, you don't understand it. Whenever you explain something, ask yourself "why". Why does this happen.

For example, weaker students will say "water is a polar molecule" and leave it at that. Ask yourself why? Because it's electronegative. Why does that make it polar? Because this means that electrons from the hydrogens spend more time around the oxygen and less time around the hydrogens. This creates a partial negative charge around the oxygen (more negative charges are spending time there) and a partial postitve charge around the hydrogens (less electrons spending their time there).

So just by asking yourself "why", you just went from a band 3 to a band 6 answer.

Finally, hone your exam technique. Tbh, there is little difference between mid band 5 and mid band 6 in terms of knowledge - the difference is how they apply it. A tutor can help with this, but what I did was I always strived to improve my answer and always referred to the marking schemes when marking my past papers. Whenever there was something I forgot, or something that wasn't necessary, but mentioned in the rubric, I would add it to my notes. I would do this regardless of whether I had gotten the question right or not. I basically ended using past papers as methods of learning new content.
Damn, you're an actual genius, thank you greatly for this man. Yeah, this lockdown made me more aware of study techniques and all that. Spent hours researching the best ones, then more research into the best websites/apps for those techniques haha. Honestly, I was gonna go Quizlet as well but found out about Brainscape and its like a balance between Anki and Quizlet. Its free, has a nice interface and has spaced repetition.
Definitely gonna do more of that "Feynman technique". Also, how much are your notes for Year 12 syllabus? If it really does "have it all", then maybe... :)
Anyways, thank you for taking a lot of your time to respond to me lol, I REALLY needed this clarification. Good of the luck to you.
 

idkkdi

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Damn, you're an actual genius, thank you greatly for this man. Yeah, this lockdown made me more aware of study techniques and all that. Spent hours researching the best ones, then more research into the best websites/apps for those techniques haha. Honestly, I was gonna go Quizlet as well but found out about Brainscape and its like a balance between Anki and Quizlet. Its free, has a nice interface and has spaced repetition.
Definitely gonna do more of that "Feynman technique". Also, how much are your notes for Year 12 syllabus? If it really does "have it all", then maybe... :)
Anyways, thank you for taking a lot of your time to respond to me lol, I REALLY needed this clarification. Good of the luck to you.
pretty sure it's 30 iirc.
 

idkkdi

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THE HUH?! I legit saw notes for free... $5 from state rankers... there's no way... Thats legit worth 2 hours of public tutoring ;-; . Welp, that's a gg 😭
$5 from state rankers? lmao, where is this.

old syllabus?
 

dasfas

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Damn, you're an actual genius, thank you greatly for this man. Yeah, this lockdown made me more aware of study techniques and all that. Spent hours researching the best ones, then more research into the best websites/apps for those techniques haha. Honestly, I was gonna go Quizlet as well but found out about Brainscape and its like a balance between Anki and Quizlet. Its free, has a nice interface and has spaced repetition.
Definitely gonna do more of that "Feynman technique". Also, how much are your notes for Year 12 syllabus? If it really does "have it all", then maybe... :)
Anyways, thank you for taking a lot of your time to respond to me lol, I REALLY needed this clarification. Good of the luck to you.
Nws, it's good to make sure you're being efficient at studying - chances are you're going to be studying for at least another 3 years so you'd want to make sure you're not wasting time haha. Try get some friends together and teach them using the Feynman technique. It's especially good because you get to study and it's more fun because you're with mates.
 
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dasfas

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THE HUH?! I legit saw notes for free... $5 from state rankers... there's no way... Thats legit worth 2 hours of public tutoring ;-; . Welp, that's a gg 😭
Yeah they're $30. Up to you if you want to buy them, what was helpful for me may not necessarily be helpful for you.

But imo $30 is super worth it. It's all the content of class and studying put together. That's like easily 400 hours of learning + studying put together. If you're from a low income household and are struggling because of covid, I'm happy to sell them for cheaper.
 

idkkdi

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Yeah they're $30. Up to you if you want to buy them, what was helpful for me may not necessarily be helpful for you.

But imo $30 is super worth it. It's all the content of class and studying put together. That's like easily 400 hours of learning + studying put together. If you're from a low income household and are struggling because of covid, I'm happy to sell them for cheaper.
does it include error compilation/pracs?
 

SweatyAsian#1

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does it include error compilation/pracs?
Not sure, check her out but she went to Project Academy, went to Baulkham Hills high school, etc. You know what I mean 👍 But like, there are a ton of free HSC notes, why is buying notes better than free notes? If I may ask...
 

idkkdi

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Not sure, check her out but she went to Project Academy, went to Baulkham Hills high school, etc. You know what I mean 👍 But like, there are a ton of free HSC notes, why is buying notes better than free notes? If I may ask...
bought notes aren't necessarily better. but they could be better lmao. this is why you ask for samples lol.
 

SweatyAsian#1

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Yeah they're $30. Up to you if you want to buy them, what was helpful for me may not necessarily be helpful for you.

But imo $30 is super worth it. It's all the content of class and studying put together. That's like easily 400 hours of learning + studying put together. If you're from a low income household and are struggling because of covid, I'm happy to sell them for cheaper.
I umm.. In-case you didn't see it, I emailed you with my school account lol. Its Je___.Ko___@education.nsw.gov.au
 

ezOolong

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in ur case, no need unless:
1 ur struggling with questions
2 ur teacher cannot teach properly and spends the whole lesson talking about her son
3 if u want help on assignments / assessment preps
 

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